Welcome to The Family Way
by miilky
Summary: Parenthood isn't easy. Follow Nick and Judy as they raise their growing family, and watch their kids grow into adults similar to their parents. But don't tell them that. WildeHopps.
1. An Appeal of Interest

**a/n:** Watched Zootopia last week and fell die hard in love with Wilde Hopps. The directors and writers and animators and everyone else involved really got it right when it came to these two, and I wanted to expand in a world in case the sequel never happens-or if it takes an opposite turn.

* * *

As she got older, Judy's future became a game of sorts.

Her career was always the priority. She'd go to Zootopia, change the world, be the best cop she could be, and after that, it didn't matter. Her sights, like her actions, were done in the moment; she assumed she'd work, work, until she couldn't work anymore.

Her siblings joked she'd be the last of them to get married, the last of them to have kids. She took their jokes in stride. In her opinion, they weren't wrong. The likelihood of a relationship and kids, although promisinig in its own way, didn't appeal to her as it did her parents and family.

It was these thoughts that occupied her mind as she was confined to a hospital bed in Zootopia General. Her drug induced haze glared at the sketchy television screen, and her paw flicked through the channels, not really able to discern one from the other. There was an _All My Antelopes_ marathon on FNN, and the gameshow channel was pumping another _Trap that Species_.

Her paw fell helplessly, and she sighed. There was nothing good about this; nothing good about this at all. She didn't look underneath the bed sheets to know what she was in for, and she chewed her lower lip, the crippling pain from earlier acting as a tantalizing but poignant reminder as to why she was in her current condition.

The surgeon said the gunshot wound wasn't as terrible as it could have been, and they managed to remove the bullet and stop the bleeding in record time. _Stupid, stupid, stupid,_ she cursed as he relayed the news to her, _You went in too fast-too hard._ But her optimism didn't fail her, and she found herself relieved she wasn't, she didn't know, _dead_.

Which was what her parents thought when they had visited her; it had taken five stern reminders from the nurse that she couldn't be touched. Her condition was fragile, as was her body and everything else about her, he implied. It frustrated her, annoyed her, bristled not at her pride but her sense of duty, and she felt she had failed, somehow.

"Looks like Sleeping Beauty's finally woken up from her long overdue nap," her ears pricked, and a soft smile replaced her agitated frown. Nick sauntered to the bed with an airy confidence that was too true to be real, and he took a seat, still dressed in uniform, as his tired green eyes perked in her presence. She tried to displace his concern and worry, the stiffness in his joints as he sat in the chair, and she hummed an off tune melody to fill the silence.

"We caught him-her, the perp," he yawned, "after you got hit, they skirted to Rodentia. Pretty easy to pinpoint her, and well, when you try to whack Mr. Big's beloved granddaughter's equally beloved godmother…you get the picture."

He was rambling; she knew. She tried to move closer, but couldn't, not if she wanted to disturb her bandaged torso. Seeing this, Nick's eye widened, and he pulled his chair closer to the bed, placing his hand on top of hers reassuringly, "And you're hanging up well, I suppose?"

"As well as a fox can be without his partner, and his wife, but…things are great at home," his paw tightened around hers, and she felt the swell of heat and coolness still on her, strange.

"Look, Nick, I am so sorry for getting you into all of this," she rolled her eyes and suppressed a groan, "if I hadn't been so gunho, but I knew if I wasted-doesn't matter, I'm sorry."

He scoffed, rolling his eyes at her sincere apology, "That's the reason why I love ya', Carrots, but yeah, it was scary seeing you like that-so don't ever do it again, 'kay?" It was said playfully, with a hint of reproach, but the pleading undercut didn't go unnoticed.

"I'll try my best," and they knew it was a promise. She was the best tryer in the whole city, and when she made a promise she usually stuck to it. But still, he wasn't going to relinquish his hold on her paw until he saw with his eyes, in her eyes, the wide eye wash he always saw when he was with her.

"Now, now, don't get too mushy on me," hard to say when he was close to tears himself. He had found her, he was the last name she whispered as she slipped into unconsciousness, and his controlled demands for backup rolled through static and screamed at Clawhauser.

He remembered, not that he'd forgotten, "I got a present for you, well, someone does, but I put it together." He patted her paw and stood up, going to the open doorframe and speaking to someone on the outside. Confused, she craned her head to see, but was too exhausted and weak to see beyond the walls.

"Nick, I told you I didn't want anything-,"

"Nah, nah, isn't going to fly this year," he waved her off, and spoke again to the person, "Look, I know you're embarrassed, you're not? Then-ah, look, don't worry, she's going to love anything you give her. Trust me, I gave her air freshener for our first anniversary."

Waiting, she should have suspected what was coming, but a combination of weakness, exhaustion, and drugs had left her senses a tad off. But either way, she would've been happy, and when Nick returned with his paw holding a tinier paw, she felt blood rush to her cheeks as she patted her mattress excitedly.

"Hey baby," forgetting her current state, she pulled herself up completely, and smiled brightly at the young child, whose free hand held a glittered wrapped box to their chest, "Oh, _oh_ , is that for me?"

"Yeah…," looking to the floor, then forcing themselves to stare at her, "it was for your birthday, but I thought it'd be better to give it to you now. Looks like you need it, Nick agreed."

He shrugged, "The kid has great timing. Couldn't have done better myself."

"Does it still hurt?"

"A little, but don't worry about that!" Her pain was forgotten underneath her euphoria, and she took the gift gently from the child's hand, shaking the medium sized box close to her ears, "Hand made or store bought?"

"A bit of both," a tear gasp escaped their mouth, and they shuffled their feet, "I wasn't sure you'd like it."

"I'd love anything you give me." Darn it! She didn't want to cry, but the tears came freely, gasping as she apologized profusely for events she didn't have absolute control over, "I tried so hard, I wanted to be there for you, and I-I'm so sorry baby, I am, and I thought-maybe, maybe you were angry with me."

"Why would I?" They shook their heads, water sticking to their red fur, "You tried. I can't ask for more than that."

Despite the distance they tried to keep, Nick gently nudged their back forward until steps were taken towards Judy's open arms, and she pulled them in, cupping them with as much strength as she could. Her tears mixed into their fur, and she kissed their eyes and cheeks, promising she'd never do that again-couldn't think of leaving any of them behind.

Nick followed quickly, unable to resist the urge to take them both in, and he let his chin rest on her head, whispering that he'd never been so worried-so afraid. He didn't want to lose, couldn't think of losing the first person to believe in him, that wonderful blaze shooting through his life.

"I promise ya' Carrots, you aren't going in alone again," rules be damned, the conviction in his voice was somewhat overwhelming.

Judy's future was a tad unorthodox.

First rabbit cop, married to a fox-also her partner, having a child (loving a child) that was neither his or her species.

And who would have won the game, she wondered. Her parents, sisters, brothers, maybe those aunts and uncles (grandmothers and grandfathers) holding firm in that belief that once she found the right man she'd learn to settle and accept her lot in life.

Her career was a priority, so was the city and the citizens she served, and when asked why marry at all-why be a mother, she'd look at them and smile.

"I still can't say they appeal to me, marriage-motherhood, but when I found them, I knew it. So I didn't waste it. You can get that much, can't you?"

The winner didn't matter much in life's grand scheme, but Judy was positive she had gotten more than she bargained for, and loved every second of it.

* * *

 **a/n:** In my headcanon Judy and Nick cannot biologically have children together. Hybrids do exist in this world with lions/tigers and other animals as they do in real life, but the fox and bunny can't have funnies or boxes. While it's joked around a bit in the interviews, where it might be a thing in a possible sequel, I like the idea that while no they can't have children together in the traditional sense, they're determined to have a family. Also, Judy never really wanted kids in the first place (being a workaholic), but when she finally encountered the child, _"And my heart went BOOM,"_ and Nick's a similar case too.

It's a non-linear story format where I'll include various children and hijinks they find in the Hopps-Wilde family, and tons of fluff and angst, family feels, and some crime drama in between. Nick and Judy would make great parents imo.


	2. Welcome to The Family Way

**a/n:** To everyone who has reviewed, alerted, and favorited this story, thank you. Feedback is appreciated, and if you want, you can send requests. It'll be my first time taking requests to a story, but I'm open for it. I do have other ideas I'm going to write up, but requests are open. Yes, the children are made and accounted for. Ten adopted kids, and I will post their species and order of age at the end.

Will try to make this a weekly thing.

On to the children, in the first story I wasn't sure what I wanted from the child. The child was a plot device, but afterwords, I worked out a story for her. Lynn Soo is seven years old when she meets them, and she's a part of a case where she's a key witness in a murder case. Judy and Nick fall in love with her, and after one kidnapping session and solving one drug-conspiracy case, they adopt her. After her, there'll be ten children, all different species, and all happily adopted by our favorite cop duo.

* * *

Nick was afraid she wouldn't like the house.

He and Judy, two years after their marriage, purchased a comfortable home near the police station-more or less thirty five minutes away on a good day. It was stylish, spacious, much more than he thought it should be for a fox and his bunny wife.

But was it too stylish? Too spacious? Was it too much for a six year old who had spent the majority of her life pent up in a box.

No, he corrected himself, it wasn't a box-it was a shack; overcrowded with the degenerates of society, worse than what he was. It made him shiver at her happiness when she had shown them; childish obliviousness to her rotting environment, or as Judy explained, _"She doesn't know any better because she has nothing to compare it to."_

He wanted to think on the car ride home that of course she'd love it. Of course she'd love the nice spaced rooms, decorated walls, the general warmth of the place, but another part of him, far more worried and wishing to accommodate, feared it'd be too much. Up to now she'd known only one world, and had been, quite unceremoniously, ripped away from it.

Which was for the better. He'd never regret adopting her. She was a smart girl. A good girl. He hoped she'd want to be his.

"Look, I'm just saying she should get the smaller room?"

"Smaller room?" Judy spun on him quickly, not angrily but in danger of getting angry; she was skeptical, willing to listen to his argument, "Why would we give her-Nick, she deserves a _nice_ room."

"Nice doesn't mean it has to be big." Crap, he didn't like doing this. He hated feeling this way, but he knew Judy. She meant well, had the biggest heart of them all, but she could, sometimes, be a little insensitive, "Listen to me, honey, listen-you remember her room?"

"It wasn't a room," she hissed, and subconsciously gripped the steering wheel harder than she normally would have, "it was...oh gods, it was terrible, Nick."

"Yeah, yeah it was, but hear me out, she's used to small spaces. She didn't have to say it-we saw it, and maybe she can go for the big room later, but lets start it out easy for her. We don't want to overwhelm her; be gentle."

If there was one thing he loved about Judy, and there were a lot of things he loved about her-not counting her figure and dogged sense of justice, was that she listened. Even when she was stiff, skeptical, against the idea, she listened, and it was possible to sway her with good cause and reason. She deliberated quietly on this, nodding her head softly, and she looked at him, fear starting to rise, "I-I don't want to hurt her, Nick. She's been through so much."

"I know, and we're not. We're gonna love that kid so much that she'll burst."

"Bad description, dear, but okay," she gasped-laughed.

Yes, Nick was worried, terrified, that she wouldn't like the house.

When they arrived she carried her duffel bag with limited amount of possessions in it, _"I can handle it,"_ and walked behind them quietly, not in between-not ahead in kiddie fashion, with an apprehensive look on her face. And really-really, ouch; ouch because that was something they were trying to work past through.

Judy promised they'd go shopping for more clothes, and she smiled and nodded that'd be fun. Nick personally decorated her bedroom, and bought her toys he thought she might like. He promised they'd go shopping for better things than clothes, and she smiled and nodded that'd be fun.

It was a quick tour. Kitchen, living room, downstairs bathroom, upstairs bathroom, their bedroom, and hers.

" _Oh no, oh no, crap, shit,"_ steady yourself, Nick, don't show you're afraid, be happy and smile-casual.

Her room wasn't small, but it was smaller than they had originally planned. Judy didn't want to decorate too much, and insisted she'd make it hers in her own time. The little girl walked into the room and stared, and he saw she was confused, which again-ouch made him sink. She looked at the desk, the walls, and dropped her duffel bag to walk to the bed.

Her paw smoothed on the quilt, "Is this mine?"

"All of it is yours," Judy explained, and she patted the quilt, "my mom made this especially for you. To welcome you to the family."

"And we know it's different from the room you slept in before, even when you were on temporary stay with us, but if you want to change-,"

She wrapped the quilt in her arms, and buried her face in it, sighing deeply, "No, I love this. Can I keep it?"

They weren't sure if she meant the quilt or the room, but they assured her that 'yes, everything in here is yours.'

"Okay, can we go shopping now?"

Nick saw what Judy couldn't, and she heard what he couldn't. It was a fair trade.

Judy was afraid-oh, she wasn't sure what she was afraid of. She was afraid of a lot of things. Good home? Good parents? Would she hate it? Would she love them?

Her parents told her that children could never love parents as much as their parents loved them, and this made her heart stutter because she didn't just love Lynn-she was _in love_ with her.

She was adorable, sweet, sharp minded, crafty, and much more coming from the daughter of an infamous hitman that was now sentenced to two, consecutive lifetimes in maximum prison. It was difficult to think ZPD had spent over two decades searching for this man, to discover he had willingly turned himself in three years ago under his real name, left behind an innocent little girl, left her with a frightening object of power, and for her to be hunted down by his enemies.

But to his credit, he claimed this was the plan. His brother was alive at the time, and was meant to leave the city as soon as Lynn was in his care. For some reason, this didn't happen, and the girl lived with her uncle, who she had thought was her father until his murder.

It was a long story. Complicated, messy, and made Judy's stomach churn when she thought too long on it.

So Judy was afraid Lynn would hate her for not protecting her father, and from the records and information, had tried to give her what he could. Had tried to protect her, and loved her in the natural way fathers loved their children.

Sleep didn't come easily. She turned on her side, and stared out in the darkness. Nick's arm was wrapped around her torso, his muzzle pushing gently into the back of her neck, and normally, this was enough to knock her out for eight solid hours. But she couldn't. She heard everything, and the uneasiness in her gut wouldn't leave her.

Wait? Her ears pricked. What was that? She raised her head. The sounds were soft padded, and any other person without her kind of ears wouldn't have heard them. They scrambled on the floor, hushed and quiet, a sharp tinge of urgency in their movements, and suddenly, slipping quickly out of Nick's embrace, she rushes downstairs.

Instinct tells her Lyn isn't in her bed. Instinct tells Judy Lyn is out her bed, somewhere in the house, but where and why? She didn't want to think that she'd be taken, kidnapped like she was a few weeks ago; a terrorizing week in which they searched, desperate of what could be done to her. Her tiny little body strung out in the trees; a shallow grave in the desert.

" _The kitchen,"_ flashlight in hand, she looked around the area, and saw the second the refrigerator closed with a definite thud. The last traces of light thinned out, and she heard scuffling, sliding, and she switched on the kitchen light, illuminating with bright light.

"Lynn?"

"Mmmhmm," her tailed swished behind the counter, and Judy sighed, walking around to meet her.

"Baby, what-what are you doing?" It was plain to see. A gallon of milk was held firmly in her tiny paws, and on the floor was a plastic cup. Her eyes were wide, unsteady, and Judy noticed how her shoulders stiffened when she approached her.

"I-I never had a glass of milk before bed," she licked her lips, and put the gallon back on the floor, reaching for the top, "I'm sorry."

"No, sweetie, why didn't you ask?"

Confused, she titled her head, understanding the words but not understanding them, "I didn't know if you'd let me. They-he, it wasn't safe to go out to get anything after dark, and if you had to, I didn't want that. It wouldn't be safe."

Okay, she could handle this. She could handle this. Don't let her see how she got you, and Judy smiled, kneeling down to grasp the gallon of milk and cup. Sensing she wasn't in trouble, Lynn watched with wary eyes, and chewed her bottom lip. Judy's movements were swifter than hers, fluid, and soon, the milk was poured easily into the plastic cup.

"I'll get napkins!" Remembering she had spilled some, she found the paper towels and dapped where she made her mark.

Returning the milk into the refrigerator, she pulled Lynn into her arms and onto a stool at the counter, "Would you like it warmed?"

"Yeah!" Into the microwave it went for fifteen seconds, and Lynn grasped it happily, dousing it in one go, "Oh, it's so warm. It makes my tummy warm."

"Good, that's very good, and you know," she swallowed, "that you can ask Nick and I for anything, okay? We're family."

Lynn paused and nodded, "I know, thank you." They went back upstairs, and Judy watched as she entered her room, leaving a crack in her bedroom. Unsatisfied, Judy went to the door, and stepped through it, concerned and needing to know.

Her mother's quilt was under the bed, and Judy's heart clenched.

Lynn was new to all this, and she was afraid.

Judy and Nick weren't the nicest people she'd met, but they were fundamentally good people. At six and a half she had long ago discerned the difference between nice and good, and knew their hearts were in the right place, although they sent conflicting signals.

Which was why she worked hard to please them. She didn't understand why Nick's face paled when he found the quilt under the bed, or why Judy seemed to stiffen every time she put extra dinner roles into her pockets. They explained everything was hers; this was their home, _her_ home, and they wanted her to feel as much as she wanted to believe it.

So sure, she was afraid they wouldn't want her anymore. It was natural. She was afraid their love would wane, which was something she could live with; she was afraid they'd end up dying. A cop's job wasn't a safe one; that she couldn't live with.

If they had more kids, she'd live with it; bunnies and foxes had more than one baby naturally anyways. She didn't understand why they'd settle with her.

But they were fundamentally good people, which was rare in the world they lived in, so she didn't question it is as much as she could've.

Lynn understood that some parts of her past she couldn't tell them. She couldn't say she knew how to counterfeit money as well as the best counterfeiters; she couldn't say she used to sleep in walls. Actual walls where no one could find her on bad days. Strippers and prostitutes, what they did, were common scenes, and she knew what sex was, and what could happen to them in the Underground.

She sensed they already knew this, and was the reason behind her visits to the therapist-who was nice in every way.

No matter how she tried to wrap her mind around it, she didn't get it.

" _Judy, calm down."  
"She hates us."_

Their was scuffling on the other side of the bedroom door. Their voices were united and quiet, but not so quiet that they didn't echo down the hall. Her booksack strap started to slip off her shoulder, and she caught it quickly, pushing her back onto the wall.

"Nick, she didn't even tell us about it. Maybe, maybe she didn't want us there." She was pacing. There was a gentle rhythm of her feet pattering on the floor, "Parents Day, of course she didn't tell us. She-she doesn't, oh, I must've done something wrong."

Now, this was where Nick folded his arms around her. "Come on Carrots, that isn't true, maybe she is _embarrassed_...there's a lot of issues going on with that, but y _ou-_ us, we're not doing anything wrong. We haven't. We're still in the adjustment period. Plus, she's a kid-most kids don't want their parents coming to lame school events, freaking 'em out."

"Don't tell me you're not disappointed," she sniffed into his chest.

"I can't say I'm not," he said softly, and Lynn imagined he was caressing her head, which he normally did whenever Judy was upset.

The realization left her numb, and she returned to her bedroom. Adults, parents, were worried in the same way kids, children were. They thought they were unwanted? It was an unspeakable concept to her six year old mind, and she thought back to the day when Mrs. Hendrix spoke of Parents Day.

Not that it had any meaning to her. She didn't think much about it until a few days before, and even then, it was with the same indifference she always had. Besides, their jobs were more important, and they were tired after work, although they wore excited and happy smiles for her every night they made it home.

She had failed to consider their feelings, and their wants. It sounded selfish when it was out in the open, and she looked around her room, suddenly sad and lost.

The next morning they walked to school. School walks were semi-quiet, peaceful, uneventful, and despite their wounded hearts, they carried on as if nothing had occurred. Lynn walked ahead, they walked behind, and there was a natural rhythm to their steps. Other kids and their parents walked around them, staring, and she puffed agitatedly, knowing what she needed to do but not knowing how to go about doing it.

Directly? With a bit of finesse and subtlety?

She started to slow her steps, and her paws flexed around her booksack straps. The school was five minutes away. She'd miss her chance if she didn't move quick. She didn't realize her steps had slowed to a speed where she was directly in the middle of them, and she raised her heat, confused, then released her paws and slipped them into their waiting ones.

Oh, these were nice. Very warm, very firm, they wrapped instinctively.

"Are you ready for that Social Studies test?" Judy asked, with a touch of awe in her voice.

"Hmm...yeah, I guess, Nick and I spent last week studying," which was true, he was surprisingly adept at giving good study tips, and on Saturdays they spent an hour reviewing the material.

"Ah, Judy, she's gonna do fine." Even if she didn't do well, she didn't think they'd be mad, concerned-very, but not mad.

Her arms wrapped around their waists once they made it the school. It was quick, fast, and she breathed she loved them and she'd see them after they got home. They returned the hugs automatically, breathing the same thing into her neck, except Nick's hug lasted longer than she expected.

"Nick..."

"Hold on, hold on, just a few moments."

"Nick...I, I gotta go."

"Just a few more moments." He sighed and nuzzled her cheeks as he raised her feet off the ground, "Accept the hug, dear, accept the hug."

"Nick, we've got ten minutes to make it to work," Judy laughed, and started to pry his arms off her tiny body.

After two and a half minutes of awkward hugging, and awkward hug release, he released her and pressed his lips on her cheek, and they watched with content smiles as she waved them off before going onto the school's grounds.

She thought she saw Judy wipe at her eyes and Nick his nose, but it was hard to tell in the autumn sunlight.

* * *

 **a/n:** Lynn is a red panda, and they are currently endangered. The children do have different ages too, so although Lyn's the first, she isn't the "oldest." Your requests don't have to stay in the present. Want to see their future lives, A+++ grandparents Judy and Nick? Go on ahead.

Lynn (Red Panda) 2  
Tyson (Tigon) 3  
Cooper (Racoon) 1  
Patsy & Betsy (Arctic Hare) 5  
Josephine (Gray Fox) 6  
Yuri (European Hamster) 4  
Lupita (Timberwolf) 8  
Anna Belle (Black Sheep) 7  
Gina (Grolar-Grizzly/Polar Bear) 9


	3. Going Primal

**a/n:** Another chapter. The children are going to be alright.

* * *

" _What_ were they doing?"

Lynn didn't cast her stare away from her textbook, "Doing _what_ Betsy?"

"What do you mean _what_ were they doing?" Tyson interjected, and his wary stare didn't deter neither of the girls. Cooper was busy downing his seaweed-nutmet milkshake, and Tyson grimaced, never understanding what good his brother tasted in the unusual concoction.

Betsy fluffed, and her tall ears twitched in agitation, "You know what I mean. _What_ were they doing?"

Tyson looked to Lynn caught in her textbook, and Cooper looked to Tyson wile pouring another cup of milkshake. His grin was seaweed colored.

"Oh, come on, _you_ know!" Aware her siblings were deliberately withholding information from her, vital information that would separate her from young-ness, Betsy stomped her long feet in quick succession, anxious and irritated, _"What were they doing?"_

Cooper could've walked away. Being two years older, he was-by technicality, the oldest, but Lynn—as it was, had unwittingly adopted the role and performed it dutifully. He and others flocked to her for guidance and reassurance, especially when their parents were touch and go. There was no shame, and in delight, he watched as her cream cheeks flecked with golden brown brightened. She lowered her head so deeply into her math book that even her irritated brow disappeared on the pages.

Betsy was insistent, and when she wanted something, _anything_ , she usually got it. "Please, please, please, please, _pleeeeaaaaassse_ ," on her knees she begged, and Lynn groaned at the kitchen table, trying her hardest to remain neutral and indifferent, "everyone else knows, even Patsy!"

"Betsy?" Tyson asked, "How does she know?"

"We heard them at the exact same time a few nights ago, but she won't tell me what it was," she explained bitterly.

"It isn't anything weird about that," Cooper drawled, and he slurped more of his original drink, "you're _hares_. You can hear every weird thing going on in this place, just like Mom, ain't nothing special about that."

"But it was!" Betsy hopped to him, "Patsy got really upset, and wouldn't tell me why. How comes _she_ knows and _I_ don't?"

Tyson winced. Patsy was a reader, a lover of education, and probably recorded more than her share of educational documentaries. Like a starving bear she devoured information greedily, and then processed it like a machine, making sense of it when no one else could. Besty's caught in the moment nature didn't clench her thirst for knowledge, but made it suitable to her interests. She didn't search if she didn't care to search, and unfortunately, this was an instance where she cared a whole lot just because her sister's superiority dangled above her like a dirty fishing lure.

"Tell me!"

"No," Tyson groaned.

"Why not?"

"'Cause you're too little," he explained evenly, getting the same tone their mother used whenever her temper was starting to rise.

"So is Patsy!"

"Well, it isn't my fault Patsy seems to know it. I don't want to be put into a position where I have to tell you anything Madre and Pops wouldn't."

Lynn and Cooper raised their heads at the boiling confrontation. Pinched expressions covered their faces, and quiet communication passed between them as the loud voices drummed inside their heads. It didn't take long for the fateful words to string out in a tired, strung out, absolutely dragged line, "They were mating, Bets. That's what you heard."

Tyson sucked in a sharp breath, covering his mouth in horror. Betsy pulled back, tilted her head, and let the gears in her brain work. Work for ten seconds they did until her eyes widened, and her little nose twitched.

"No, they did not," came the quiet, gasping, disbelieving voice, "they can't."

"What?" Cooper rounded the counter and went to the sink, turning on the water, "Parents can't have sex?"

"Cooper!"

"Well, rise and shine, they do- _all the time_. Even in the basement."

"Oh my god, Lynn, _stop_!"

Good, it wasn't as terrible as they expected it would be. At some point or another, while living in this household, they had witnessed the unmentionable now mentioned, and saw it not as the most disgusting act in the world but a disgusting act common in childhood without the waves of guilt and shame. Oh, it was there-the disgust and denial, but was more reassuring than anything else. They were, at last, part of a loving family.

Lynn chewed on her pencil, "Call it primal scenes. Closest animals will ever devolve to their basic, savage instincts."

Betsy's scrunched face was in deep thought, and she got her cheek and started working it, "But what about babies? How come they don't have any, you know…like normally."

"The medicine," Tyson blurted, and cupped his mouth when three sets of eyes fell on him.

"What are you talking about?" Cooper put the empty cup back into the cabinet, and closed in on the kitchen table, "What medicine?"

Tyson, suddenly aware of how piercing their eyes were, tapped his claws uneasily. He should've gone back upstairs, gone back to _Les Micerables_ , and listened to his _Harrington_ playlist on Pawtube. After disposing such interesting information on their footsteps, they weren't going to let him leave until he explained himself, and he mewed lightly, sinking into his chair.

"I heard-by total mistake, Mom and Pops-well, they were talking, discussing matters about body things, you know," he looked to the ceiling, it was a very nice ceiling with a smooth pinkish-green texture, "and Mom wanted to make sure her medicine was at the pharmacy."

"What did they say," Lynn peered, "what's this medicine have to do anything."

"I'm not sure, but Pops called it _birth control_ ," Tyson shrugged, embarrassed and started back at his cereal, ignoring their retreating gazes as they pondered over the words' meaning. It was curiously thick, floating above their heads like an invisible anchor, and slowly, they pieced together its meaning.

"Birth…well, they haven't had any of their own."

"But we are _their own_ ," Betsy sniffed.

"Not in that way…and if-if they are doing this, if it keeps them from having kids naturally," Lynn mused and tapped her chin contemplatively with her pencil, "she said, _'When I had you I realized motherhood was for me._ '"

Cooper nodded, "Didn't say anything about pregnancy."

"Even if they can't have babies with each other," which was common knowledge among their small and steadily growing family, "it doesn't mean they couldn't have babies with…you know, others of their own kind."

Was it an option? It must have been, and they turned to each other with epiphany stricken eyes.

"Whoa…," Cooper whispered.

"That's love," Tyson said.

"Real love," Lynn clarified.

Betsy's ears twitched, _"They're coming,_ " and she scattered out the room, along with Tyson caught in the rush of things, leaving Cooper and Lynn dumbstruck in the kitchen.

Nick and Judy came in side by side, laughing about some irrelevant thing or another. _Finnick?_ Lynn guessed, but there was no telling with her thoughts as jumbled as they were. Cooper was restless, returning to the fridge, and downed poured another cup of seaweed-nutmeg milkshake. Again, she didn't understand the sweetness he tasted in it.

"Hey!" Judy looked around, "Where's Betsy and Ty?"

"Upstairs, _bleaching their brain_ ," Cooper mumbled, "upstairs, dunno what they're doing."

"Patsy's at Charlotte's slumber party," Nick rummaged through the fridge, "want anything, Carrots?"

"I'm good, thank you, but-,"

"Jeeze Cooper, you're still at this stuff," pulling out the pitcher, Nick sniffed it and closed it swiftly, "I don't see what you like so much about it."

"Taste, dear."

Uncomfortable, extremely comfortable, the eldest two stared at their parents and tried, worked, their minds around the inevitable truth every child faced in their lifetime that concerned their parents' intimate lives. They glanced at each other, knowing they were glancing at them, and looked at them with tired but happy stares.

"Mom, Dad we love you," they said in union.

Judy laughed, "And we love you."

Nick, although sharing the sentiment whole-heartedly, and equally displaying it every day of every month, narrowed his eyes at the two unassuming children, "What did you do?"

"Father of little faith-,"

Lynn slammed her math book shut and stared them directly in the eye, ignoring her own flushing heart and heated nerves, "We love you very much, buy soundproof headphones, the walls have ears, and I am too old to be giving anyone, kit or not, the _talk_ ," and she scooted the chore backwards and escaped to the confines of her bedroom, finishing the rest of her homework in uneasy solitude.

"Milkshake?" He poured a second drink, and left the kitchen in fear of the rising epiphany that had struck them down so cruelly earlier.

"Soundproof headphones?" Nick sipped the drink, shivered, and smacked his jaws skeptically, "Not bad."

"Our kids are weird, Nick."

"Nah, they just have overactive imaginations."

It took them approximately two minutes and forty five seconds for them to understand that their imaginations were perfectly suited to their tastes, and the shattering glass that assaulted the floor reached upstair ears without them having to guess why, _"Soundproof headphones."_

* * *

 **a/n:** Wanted to write with the children mainly. Just to get their characters out. If you have any specific prompts, you're free to leave them in reviews, and yeah, don't forget to review!


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